with high government level officials about syrian president bashir al assad. he's been involved in a nearly two-year civil war that has seen the death of nearly 40,000 people. bring in a senior fellow at the washington institute for middle east policy. thanks for being with us. we appreciate it. let's talk about president bashar al assad's options even if he did, let's say, want to make it out hastily by syria. by some accounts i understand he wouldn't even be able to go. why is that? >> well, at this point, president assad has murdered so many of his own people, that it's difficult for him to stay within the country, even in the homeland of his sect, on the syrian coast. or for other countries to accept him, because they realize that in a post-assad syria, a more democratic one, that the syrian people are going to be very angry at whatever country holds president assad. and then, of course, there's the issue of his own personal security. you can just end up with a bullet in the back of his head, and that's why many believe he'll simply go off to tehran, to syria's main alley. >> so they be